


Taking a Moment

by Happenstance_and_Balderdash



Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: F/M, quiet moments, sleeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 08:11:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7883410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Happenstance_and_Balderdash/pseuds/Happenstance_and_Balderdash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liz watches Red sleep and takes a moment to reflect on how things stand between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking a Moment

**Author's Note:**

> It's assumed for this piece that Tom is not in the picture for whatever reason. Written as season 4 promos are coming out, so later conflict with canon is unintentional.

Dembe sat silently in an armchair by the open doorway, the very picture of calm alertness.  The safe house was quiet except for the white noise of Agnes’ off-station radio and the creakings which come with any building.  Mr. Kaplan was fewer than fifteen minutes away by car.  If Liz had listened to her body, she would have been asleep the moment her daughter stopped fussing for a pacifier. 

The issue was that Red was also asleep, and she found herself somewhat captivated by the image.  He lay on his side on an old sofa with his arms folded loosely in front of him, one hand tucked under to hold the other in place.  His shoes stuck out from under the worn piece of furniture, evenly set and spotless while his fedora adorned the corner of a decorative pillow.  To anyone else, this would be an uninteresting, dull sight.  To Liz, however, it was that very dullness which caught her attention.

Red was a different man when he slept.  Everything he put on display while awake; his affectations, the calculating way he looked at everyone and every situation, the mutual distrust he had with nearly everyone…all of it fell away in sleep.  Sleeping, he was like anyone else.  Some of the lines seemed to leave his face, his mouth hung slightly open and the occasional soft snore punctuated the silence.  Seeing him like this, one would never think he could ever carry the title ‘Concierge of Crime’. 

“You should sleep,” Dembe mouthed to her from across the room when she looked up for a moment.

She only smiled and shook her head slightly, mouthing back, “Not yet.”

This sleeping man was the one who pulled her out of obscurity right when she was beginning a new chapter of her life.  This was the man who had looked after her from afar, unknown, for most of her life.  He had also turned that life completely upside down.  If not for him, she might have been raising a child with Tom long before Agnes.  This was the man she had deliberately stabbed in the neck.  She could see the scar, still, if the light caught his skin at the right angle.  This was the man who had so recently come to the rescue of not only her, but her daughter as well.    He’d torn her life apart, but was helping her to collect the pieces.

This was the man she couldn’t seem to stop herself falling for. 

Even in her mind, admitting it was difficult.  There was so much baggage to sort through between the two of them.  So many things still left to explain and apologies needed from both sides.  She knew he loved her, and that her daughter had inherited some measure of that love as well.  On some level he must be aware of her feelings toward him.  She had come so close to telling him after Agnes was born.  Right now, however, wasn’t the time to sort things out.  Right now, everyone was safe and no danger was forthcoming. 

Liz knew she would regret her lack of sleep in the morning, but she wanted to pull these quiet moments out as long as she could before reality inevitably came roaring back to greet them all.  For now, she would be grateful for the protection of Dembe and Mr. Kaplan, the sound sleep of her daughter, and the rare sight of a peaceful Red in the half-light of the room.  Tomorrow, it would be caffeine coming to her rescue.


End file.
